FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to new surface active compounds which are also effective textile softening and conditioning agents, hair conditioners, humectants, cationic dispersants and the like.
There are literally tens of thousands of surface active compounds, and if not tens of thousand then, certainly hundreds and indeed thousands of surface active compounds which are used in textile cleaning and laundering operations. Of this latter group, few, if any, are effective to any substantial and practical degree as wash cycle textile softening agents and, of these, none, as far as we are aware, are considered commercially viable.
Most laundry surfactants leave the wash with a very harsh, boardlike feel. On a rating scale of one to ten, with one being very hard and ten being very soft, most surfactants give values of one or two on cotton. A typical 80:20 (tallow-coconut oil) soap gives higher readings with the values being dependent upon concentration and weight ratio of cotton to soap. When clothes are treated in the rinse cycle of an automatic washing machine with a conventional 6% active aqueous quaternary softener, such as dimethyl, dihydrogenated tallow ammonium methosulfate, the softeners' ratings on cotton will usually range from 9 to 10+.
Surfactant materials cover the entire spectrum of charged types of compounds such as:
(1) anionic, as illustrated by fatty acid soaps, sulfonates (e.g. alkyl benzene sulfonates, olefin sulfonates, paraffin sulfonates), sulfates (e.g. sodium lauryl sulfates), ether sulfates (e.g. the sodium salt of the sulfated ethylene oxide condensation with lauryl alcohol);
(2) cationic, such as octadecyl trimethylammonium chloride, cetyl trimethylammonium methyl sulfate, polymeric cationics derived from monomers such as N,N,N-trimethyl-N-methacryloxy (2-hydroxy propyl) ammonium chloride and cationic monomers such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,212,820 (Hotchkiss et al), 4,098,987 and 4,171,418 (both Baura et al) and 4,426,489 (wessling et al), these patents being merely illustrative and not limitative. The disclosures of the aforementioned United States patents are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,849,426; 3,399,159 (Samorer) and 4,051,158 (Samorer et al). In addition to quaternary ammonium cationic moieties, the compounds with phosphonium, sulfonium, pyridinium and isothiouronium moieties and the like are also among the general and well-known group of cationic surfactants.
(3) Nonionic--These include inter alia, the broad group of the alkylene oxide condensates with a higher molecular weight, reactive H-containing organic hydrophobe, such as an alcohol (e.g. C.sub.8 to C.sub.30 alcohol e.g. stearyl alcohol, 1-octanol, dodecanol, etc.), a polyoxypropylene backbone polymer, a phenol (e.g. nonyl phenol, di-isobutyl phenol), a mercaptan, an amide, an amine, a carboxylic acid, etc. The alkylene oxide should comprise at least a substantial portion of ethylene oxide to provide the usually necessary and required hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB). Other types of nonionics include the tertiary amine oxides such as; dimethyldodecylamine oxide, dimethyltetradecylamine oxide, ethylmethyltetradecylamine oxide, cetyldimethylamine oxide, dimethylstearylamine oxide, cetylethylpropylamine oxide, diethyldodecylamine oxide, diethyltetradecylamine oxide, dipropyldodecylamine oxide, bis-(2-hydroxyethyl) dodecylamine oxide, bis-(2-hydroxypropyl) methyltetradecylamine oxide, diethyloleylamine oxide, dimethyl-2(-hydroxydodecyl) amine oxide and the corresponding decyl, hexadecyl and octadecyl homologs of the above compounds; the phosphine oxides such as: dimethyldodecylphosphine oxide, dimethyltetradecylphosphine oxide, ethylmethyltetradecylphosphine oxide, cetyldimethylphosphine oxide, dimethylstearylphosphine oxide, diethyltetradecylphosphine oxide, dipropyldodecylphosphine oxide, bis-(hydroxymethyl) dodecylphosphine oxide, bis-(2-hydroxyethyl) dodecylphosphine oxide, (2-hydroxypropyl) methyltetradecylphosphine oxide, dimethyloleylphosphine oxide, and dimethyl (2-hydroxydodecyl) phosphine oxide and the corresponding decyl, decadecyl and octadecyl homologs of the above compounds; and sulfoxides of the formula ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 is an alkyl radical containing from about 10 to about 28 carbon atoms, from zero to about five ether linkages and from zero to about two hydroxyl substitutents and wherein R.sub.2 is an alkyl radical containing from one to three carbon atoms and from zero to two hydroxyl groups, such as:
octadecylmethyl sulfoxide PA0 dodecylmethyl sulfoxide PA0 tetradecylmethyl sulfoxide PA0 3-hydroxytridecyl methyl sulfoxide PA0 3-methoxytridecyl methyl sulfoxide PA0 3-hydroxy-4-dodecoxybutyl methyl sulfoxide PA0 octadecyl 2-hydroxyethyl sulfoxide PA0 dodecylethyl sulfoxide.
(4) Ampholytic--compounds which contain a secondary or tertiary amine group and a long chain (e.g. 8 to 20 carbons), usually aliphatic group containing an anionic water-solubilizing group such as carboxy, sulfate, sulphone, etc. Taurides and isethionates are illustrative of this class.
(5) Zwitterionic--such as 3 (N,N-dimethyl-N-hexadecylammonio)-propane-1-sulfonate and other similar compounds as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,129,264, 2,774,786, 2,813,898, 2,828,332 and 3,529,524. Other types are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,265,719, 2,697,116, 2,669,991 and 2,697,656 and British Patents Nos. 970,883 and 1,046,252.
By far the predominant type of surfactant for laundry cleaning is the anionic type, followed by the nonionic type. Both of these provide excellent detergents for laundering and often they are used in combination to obtain the benefits of each. For example, non-ionics are particularly outstanding on oily soil. It is rare to employ a cationic surfactant with an anionic one due to the "interaction" between the two charged types resulting not only in a neutralization of the charges, but also of the detergency effectiveness. Where the use of small amounts of cationic softeners in combination with anionic surfactants has been successful in yielding a "softergent" (a detergent which also softens the laundry during the wash cycle) this has usually been accomplished by any one or a combination of unique ingredients and processing techniques often with some loss of surfactant and/or softening activity, etc. As an example of the foregoing, attention is directed to the following United States patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,920,563 4,082,682 4,230,590 4,298,480 4,329,237 4,326,971 4,339,335 4,446,811 and 4,450,085. ______________________________________
Thus, for example, and as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,085 Wixon), soap, non-ionic surfactant and magnesium sulfate are combined and used as separate and discrete particles in an anionic spray-dried formulation also containing a cationic softener to provide an effective detergent-softener composition. This patent reaffirms the obvious problems pointed out above of using anionic surfactants and cationic compounds (as softeners or otherwise) in combination.
While the use of non-ionic surfactants with cationic compounds does not appear to offer a problem insofar as "charge" interaction is concerned, and such combinations are common in the prior art (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,268,401, 4,291,071, 4,233,167 and 4,140,641), there are nevertheless problems here as well. Thus, it is well known that cationic softener effectiveness is often seriously curtailed in the presence of non-ionic surface active materials.
While cationic surfactants as a significant or as a major surfactant component of a laundry detergent is practically non-existent (for many obvious reasons including cost, compatibility, etc.) even were one to be considered, one has to recognize their generally poor foaming characteristics as another contra-indicating factor.
Other problems attendant with the use of the conventional quaternary ammonium compounds as softeners resides in their low water-solubility, the difficulty in forming concentrated and stable aqueous systems, and their difficult handling and processing characteristics as well.